When the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy boys’ cross country team won the Small School Race at the Manchester Invitational the Bears bested some of the best teams in New England, but there were still Large School teams that Coe-Brown didn’t see.
At Saturday’s Black Bear Invitational, Coe-Brown had that chance.
For the second weekend in a row the Bears took home the team title at a major invitational, this time on their home course, winning the 19-team Black Bear Invitational against teams from all three divisions of NHIAA competition, while Hopkinton junior Maddy Lane continued her undefeated season by winning the girls’ individual title in 18 minutes, 26 seconds.
D-II Coe-Brown topped the boys’ standings with 52 points, while Phillips Exeter, led by individual champion Bocelli Howland-Vlahakis (15:46), was the runner-up with 65. D-II Oyster River (71), D-I Bishop Guertin (114), D-II Hollis-Brookline (158) and D-I Bedford (163) rounded out the top six teams.
Sophomore Patrick Youngs (third, 17:00) led the Bears, with Ben Jobin (17:08) and Samuel Youngs (17:09) not far behind in seventh and eighth, respectively. Gus Glaser (13th, 17:32), Broden Cox (21st, 17:42), Mateo Ferguson (22nd, 17:52) and Grant Sauls (60th, 19:26) rounded out Coe-Brown’s top seven.
The Hopkinton boys were seventh with 190 points, the top D-III team in the field. Max Goupil (11th, 17:22), James Lavers (35th, 18:35), Finnegan Kovar (37th, 18:40), Michael Crosby (54th, 19:15) and Liam Tripod (58th, 19:24) led the Hawks.
Ben Geoffroy (28th, 18:20), Nathan Bain (57th, 19:20), Jonathan Degges (69th, 19:38), Westin Chevalier (91st, 20:29) and Rohan Chevalier (94th, 20:38) led Merrimack Valley (12th, 320).
Bow (13th, 345) was led by Sam Kohl (65th, 19:36), Wyatt Worcester (67th, 19:36), Gavin Simon (68th, 19:37), Jack Shulman (74th, 19:43) and Ryan Pawlowski (93rd, 20:37).
In the girls’ race, Lane and Bedford’s Mikita Barry were in lock step through the first mile of the race, but Lane opened up a gap midway through and won the 5K by 25 seconds with Barry finishing runner-up (18:51).
Ava Bullock (19:11) and Harper Peters (19:34) were third and fourth to lead Phillips Exeter to the girls’ team title. Phillips Exeter, a non-NHIAA prep school, and D-II Oyster River initially tied for first with 48 points each, but Phillips Exeter won the tiebreaker by having the faster sixth runner (the place of the top five runners typically determines the team score).
D-I Bedford (71) was third, while Lane led D-III Hopkinton (124) to fourth place. D-II Plymouth (178) and Coe-Brown (190) rounded out the top six girls’ teams.
Maisie Emerson (11th, 20:13), Rose Afflerbach (39th, 22:34), Ellison Gregory (46th, 22:48) and Hannah Clarner (52nd, 23:13) also scored for Hopkinton.
Host Coe-Brown was led by Hilary Wennberg (23rd, 21:47), Eloise Hill (31st, 22:09), Lily Travis (37th, 22:33), Olivia Zadakis (61st, 23:43) and Meredith Kerivan (71st, 24:39).
MV (10th, 265) was led by Lily Moser (47th, 22:55), Reagan Jefferson (50th, 23:01), Emily Baca (56th, 23:26), Brylee Flood (73rd, 25:15) and Illiana Wesson (85th, 26:39).
Julia Hou (28th, 22:00), Madelyn Fish (75th, 25:25), Alexis Matheis (84th, 26:38), Maya Owen (105th, 28:44) and Emma Bryant (107th, 29:08) were the scoring runners for Bow (13th, 347).